Religion

Category archives for Religion

Guess who Mitt Romney picked as co-chair of his “Justice Advisory Committee”? Robert Bork. Yes, this Robert Bork: Banning Porn, Art and Science : Bork also called for shrinking the size of the First Amendment until it is small enough to be drowned in a bathtub. “Constitutional protection should be accorded only to speech that…

When I return from the ASM2011 meeting, I hope to discuss this excellent post by Michael Bérubé about the political centrality of the culture wars. Until then, I’ll leave you with the post from the archives, “Abortion Is a Blessing”: Abortion isn’t the lesser of two evils–it is a just and good thing. So says…

From, Robert Bentley, the Republican governor of Alabama: “I was elected as a Republican candidate. But once I became governor … I became the governor of all the people. I intend to live up to that. I am color blind,” Bentley said in a short speech given about an hour after he took the oath…

If you haven’t heard by now, Sarah Palin compared criticism of her to “blood libel“, the disgusting medieval falsehood that Jews used Christian blood in religious rituals. While some have chalked this up to paranoia, I don’t think that’s correct (besides, Palin’s paranoia stems from the bursting of her narcissistic bubble). Because there’s an increasingly…

I came across this excellent article by Jerry Coyne, which is part book review, part defense of natural selection. I recommend it highly. But, in reading the article, I wondered why people are so threatened by natural selection. Because that’s not the philosophically challenging part. Unless you’re a biblical ‘literalist’, the idea of a creator…

Last week, The AP described what living the life of Palin is like: Among the perks laid out in the contract, the former Alaska governor will fly first class from Anchorage to California – if she flies commercial. If not, “the private aircraft MUST BE a Lear 60 or larger …,” the contract specifies. Palin…

Every so often, Boston proposes raising the voluntary contributions it asks non-profit organizations to pay in lieu of property taxes (and other taxes), or instituting a consistent fee (right now, these contributions are negotiated with each institution). From The Boston Globe: After 14 months, a mayoral task force has nearly completed its work examining the…

In fact, I happen to be one of them. Admittedly, my religion (Judaism) and theological beliefs are very different from theopolitically conservative Catholics and Protestants. But ScienceBlogling Chad Orzel makes a really good point about religious scientists (and I thought all he did is teach physics to dogs): …it is not in any way an…

…but who is a rabbi? A recent British High Court decision making it illegal for a Jewish school that favors Jewish applicants to base its admissions policy on whether one’s mother is Jewish, while correct in outcome, completely misunderstands the entire controversy: “One thing is clear about the matrilineal test; it is a test of…

Some thoughts on the Theology of Jerks. Earlier this week, there was some minor amusement over Christian scholar Richard Beck’s claim, at his blog Experimental Theology, that Christians (presumably he means fundamentalists) are lousy tippers: Take, for example, how Christians tip and behave in restaurants. If you have ever worked in the restaurant industry you…